The Mysterious Luella Mackenzie

     I wish I knew more about Mrs. Luella Mackenzie. She was born in Honey Well, Missouri...at least that’s according to a January, 1908 article in the American Chess Bulletin. 
     You will not find such a place on the map, but there is a Hunnewell located in NE Missouri. Today Hunnewell, which is named for Boston financier and railroad promoter H. H. Hunnewell, has an estimated population of 177. The American Chess Bulletin simply had the town’s name wrong. 
     Find A Grave says she was born Luella Wood on April 2, 1868 in Hunnewell, Missouri and passed away at the age of 76 on November 25, 1944 in Moulton, Iowa where she is buried in Oakland Cemetery. Note that the headstone spells her name “Mackinzie” while all other sources spell it “Mackenzie.” 
    

     In 1873, at the age of 5, she arrived in Moulton which is located in southern Iowa near the Missouri border and is much bigger than Hunnewell; it has an estimated population of 501. 
     As far as I could determine neither place was ever a hotbed of chess activity, so Mrs. Mackenzie played correspondence chess. 
     Few people are aware that Iowa has quite a chess history. Louis Paulsen was born in Nassengrund, Germany January 15, 1833 and died of diabetes on August 18, 1891. Paulsen lived on a farm and established a distillery and a tobacco business near Dubuque, Iowa along with his brother Ernest and sister Amalie from 1854 until 1861 when he migrated to England.
     One of the best problem magazines of the day was the Dubuque Chess Journal which was also known as Brownson's Chess Journal. It was published by an African-American named A. O. Brownson, Jr. from July 1869 until June 1892. You can download some of them at Chess Archaeology HERE. 
     Mrs. Mackenzie became interested in chess at the ripe old age of 32 in 1900 and joined the Iowa State Chess Association in 1905. She began taking part in correspondence tournaments and in the annual correspondence tournament she won the State championship without the loss of a single game. And that, along with a couple of games, is all that’s known about Mrs. Mackenzie. 
     Below is one of her games from the Iowa Correspondence Championship of 1906 that’s an exciting affair. Her opponent was H. Dickinson from Shellsburg which is located a short distance west of Cedar Rapids. 
     In October of 1910, a correspondence match of 25 boards, two games each, was played between Iowa and the Greater New York League. Iowa won by a score of 26-22, the two players on board six did not play their games for some reason. Dickinson played board 24 and lost both of his games to William P. Hickok. 
     Anybody familiar with the history of postal chess in the United States, especially the Correspondence Chess League of America, will be familiar with the name William P. Hickok of Mount Vernon, New York. He was secretary of the CCLA and of the older Greater New York League and it was he who was largely instrumental in amalgamating the CCLA with the National Association, the Correspondence Chess Bureau and the Canadian Branch of the Amateur League.
     Mrs. Mackenzie played board 25 and scored a win and a draw against her opponent, R. Bellville of Brooklyn. 

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[Event "Iowa Correspondence Championship"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1906.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Luella Mackenzie"]
[Black " H. Dickinson"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{C31: Falkbeer Counter Gambit: 3 exd5 c6 and 3...e4 sidelines.} 1. e4 e5 2.
f4 d5 {An aggressive countergambit in which black offers a P sacrifice. After
3. exd5 black may reply with 3... exf4 or try the more modern 3....c6. A
well known blunder in this opening is white's reply 3. fxe5??, which after
3... Qh4+, either loses material after 4. g3 Qxe4+ or severely exposes the
white K to attack after 4. Ke2 Qxe4+ 5. Kf2 Bc5+.} 3. Nf3 {In my database in
games involving players of all ratings white scores +25 -22 =26 with this, the
second most popular way of meeting the Falkbeer.} 3... dxe4 {Sharper is
3...exf4} 4. Nxe5 Be6 5. d4 f6 {This was played in the game Chigorin-Janowski
Vienna 1898 and there's not much to recommend for it. Either 5...Nd7 or
5...dxd3 were better.} 6. Qh5+ {Chigorin played 6.Bc4 Bxc4 7.Nxc4 and
succeeded in getting the better position out of the opening, but that was due
to poor play on Janowski's part. Even so, Chigorin went on to lose.
Mackenzie's move is difficult to judge. It offers white good practical
chances, but in the end it's probably no more than equal. As far as I know
the game is in uncharted territory now.} 6... g6 7. Nxg6 hxg6 8. Qxh8 Qxd4
{Interesting would be 9.f5 gxf5 10.Qh5+ Kd8 and who knows where the game will
go?!} 9. Qh7 Bf7 10. Qh3 Nc6 {An interesting position. White has the exchange,
but black has a big lead in development and white's Q is not especially well
placed. Who is better? Engines like material so favor white, of course, but
by no more than his normal opening advantage.} 11. c3 Qa4 12. Be2 {Black has a
decent position here after 12...f5, but instead fritters away his lead in
development with some pointless Q moves.} 12... Qc2 13. Nd2 f5 14. Bd1 Qd3
15. Qxd3 exd3 16. Bf3 { Black need not fear Bxc6 because the P on d3 would be
a bone in whites' throat. Hence, either 16...O-O-O or 16...Nf3 were good.}
16... Nd8 {Undeveloping can't be good.} 17. O-O Bc5+ 18. Kh1 c6 19. Rd1 Bb6
20. b3 Ne6 21. Nc4 O-O-O 22. Ne5 Nh6 23. Rxd3 {White is on the verge of
completing her development and then she can utilize her extra material.}
23... Rh8 24. Nxf7 Nxf7 25. g3 Bc7 26. Ba3 {White has a won position so black
begins a desperate attack. Although it's not any better than what he played,
black might have had better chances muddying the waters with 26...Nxf4 27.gxf4
Bxf4 28.Bg2 Bxh2 29.Rh3.} 26... g5 27. Re1 Rh6 28. fxg5 Nfxg5 {White's next
move is a poor one, but fortuntely she still has a significant advantage.
After the correct 29.Kg2 she has an easy win.} 29. Be7 Bxg3 30. Bxg5 {Most of
white's advantage has disappeared.} 30... Rxh2+ 31. Kg1 Nxg5 32. Re8+ Kc7 33.
Bg2 f4 34. Re5 {Black misses a draw he could have had with 34...f3! 35. Rxg5
Rxg2+ etc.} 34... Rh5 {It's amazing that this position is lost for black! The
reason is that his K is in danger from white's Rs.} 35. Re7+ Kb6 36. Kf1 {
Better was 36.b4 intending Rdd7.} 36... Rh8 37. Rg7 Bh4 38. Rd4 {38.Rdd7 was
still correct.} 38... Re8 {This mate threat is just enough to allow black to
equalize.} 39. Rb4+ Kc5 {Black has a mate threat} 40. Kg1 Re1+ 41. Bf1 b5 42.
Rxa7 Ne4 43. Kg2 Re3 {Black's R is beautifully placed.} 44. Rf7 Bg3 45. Rf5+
Kd6 46. Rd4+ Ke6 47. Rf8 {Black can now reach a draw with Bs of opposite color
with 47...Ke7! 48.Rdd8 f3+ 49.Rxf3 Rxf3 50.Kxf3 Kxd8 51.Kxe4 draw.} 47... Ke5
{After this black is lost and he gets finished off in a clean fashion.} 48.
Re8+ Kf5 49. Rdxe4 { Doomsday...taking the R allows the pin 50.Bd3} 49...
Rxc3 50. Kg1 Rc2 51. Re2 {51. Bd3 was also good.} 51... Rc3 52. Rd2 b4 53.
Bd3+ Kf6 54. Re4 {Oddly, there is no forced win for white, but sooner or later
her extra R will win.} 1-0